Storyteller: Floating Clouds
Every day on the road will encounter a lot of beggars, dirty, dangerous, depressed is the common impression of them, no one will want to know what kind of life they have lived! One day, my sister Q and I decided to get up close and personal with their lives.
We don't have any special purpose, just a little curiosity, occasionally want to understand the lives of different people, want to chat with all kinds of people.
At 10:40 a.m., I arrived at the agreed place, got out of the subway station, turned around and found him—the beggar we were looking for.
I once saw a six- or seven-year-old girl talking happily with two beggars on Christmas Eve in Shanghai, the little girl dressed up well-behaved, a person, the beggar is the kind that can be recognized at a glance, they talk freely, laugh and laugh.
Xiao Q said that she once saw a beggar in Xiushui communicating with foreigners in English, and suddenly felt that she had read English in vain.
I also considered that maybe I couldn't find the beggar today, maybe I didn't have the courage to come forward, but the truth went better than expected.
Our target, dressed in a line of plastic bags, wearing white plastic bags wrapped in two of the large black plastic bags used in outdoor garbage cans, sat on the floor, and he was reading a newspaper. As he read, he talked to himself and spit on him from time to time.
We looked at each other for half a day, and finally we decided to go forward. Stopped in front of him for half a day, he ignored it, and we looked at the newspapers he was scattered all over the ground and finally opened his mouth, so many newspapers!
The conversation was successful, and the topic was talked about.
He didn't reject us much, just read that we were interested in newspapers and guessed that we were college students studying journalism. We said yes. So he asked us very seriously how to classify news, is there such a special profession as a journalist? Then he began to tell us about his newspaper.
I finally realized that I was so wrong, when I saw him from a distance, I thought he was just spreading out a few newspapers around, I thought he was joking with the newspaper and reading it out loud, and I also doubted whether he was really literate.
But soon I was disillusioned, not only literate, but also read widely, had a good memory, and corrected my "misalignments" from time to time, which made me often feel how embarrassed I was.
The newspapers he had at his disposal were: "Reference News", "Beijing News", and "Beijing Times", and he also listed these three newspapers, his favorite is "Reference News", saying that it is more authoritative, and "Beijing News" is better for him than "Beijing Times".
He said that he bought these three newspapers every day, turned them all over, did not save them, threw them away, and bought them the next day. If he is interested in news, he will read it several times and discuss it with us from time to time.
He loves to comment, nagging, but the words are not clear, and often add a mantra similar to the mantra "Ah Mo Hey" after each sentence, and people who are watching from a distance or temporarily can't understand what he is talking about, so some people will think that he is a madman. Look at our two girls chatting with a beggar in a serious and laughing manner, and from time to time there are passers-by who stop and watch. The beggar sat, we squatted, occasionally tired, and he gave us the newspaper and asked us to sit down too.
Watching us talking, a girl who was watching stepped in to ask, I don't know what the intention is, the girl said: What is your education? doctor? I was momentarily disillusioned again, wondering how much the girl hated the doctor to say that.
However, the beggar's reading is indeed extensive, which is also his disdain for modesty, and the famous book casually says a few, "How Steel is Made", "Red and Black", "Jane Eyre"... They are all read in middle school, and the domestic reading is more comprehensive. He also went to the forum, went to the Internet café to post, Tianya, cat punch... Those forums will be on. At that moment I thought that I might have turned over his posts. Instantly feel that the network is really weird, you really don't know what kind of person is sitting in front of the computer opposite.
He didn't like Han Han and said he was "water-injected meat", and he talked to us about Li Ao, which was his dish. He didn't like Confucius, he talked to us about Lao Tzu, he said do you know what Lao Tzu wrote, we answered the Tao Te Ching, and he asked what the Tao Te Ching talked about?
I guess he didn't know, and casually said: benevolence. He said: Fart, that's Confucius!
Even though I can't agree with some of his points, I'm ashamed to have been corrected by him many times. Later, forgetting what he had said casually, he looked at me and flashed a look of "rotten wood cannot be carved" in his eyes, and said: I still have to correct you again, no, correction can no longer express my anger, I have to correct you!
Talked about a lot of topics, and he looked like he couldn't ask. It is no wonder that three newspapers a day are read through, and not many college students and office workers can do it.
Also talked about Jin Yong. I said you still watch martial arts? He was very dismissive of me and said: Cut, how normal. Men look at martial arts, women look at romance.
At that moment I looked at him, like one of my seniors, and thought how normal this conversation was, even the way he said that sentence was so normal.
He said that he had raised pigs and sold pigs, sold computers, and worked as a construction worker, and chose this path because he felt that there were too many sins in the world, so he wanted to stay away from evil.
I asked him if he had seen the Seven Deadly Sins, and he said he knew, he didn't watch it. Let me talk about the general content, I finished, he was again a criticism, disagreement, his logical reflection speed surprised me.
Next to the bowl where he let passers-by change write a line, which is printed, the specific content I forgot, roughly means: only accept handouts from passers-by who do not like the rich, without explanation.
He repeated Marx's words to us several times: Capital comes into the world, dripping blood and filth from head to toe. He was very excited when he said this, his face twitched slightly, and his hands trembled slightly.
In his eyes, the richer the person, the greater the sin. So he chatted with us and felt that we were poor students and that our sins were not deep.
Talking about getting tired, Q and I went out to dinner. Little Q bought him a loaf of bread, and I bought him a bottle of water to bring to him.
But when I went back, I saw two security guards there, and two "spectators." We thought there was something wrong, so we went up and asked the security guard, is there any situation with the beggar? The security guard said it was a neurosis, don't go over, he will rob the girl of money and food.
I was surprised and asked him, have you ever seen him rob someone else?
He didn't answer positively, just repeated what he had just said.
We ignored it and went straight over, the beggar greeted us, I took the water out, he waved his hand and said, No. It's not loud, but it's firm.
Little Q's hand on the cake was placed on the edge of his pocket, and he hurried back again, but did not take it out.
I looked at the beggar's eyes, and guessed that it meant: already familiar, no longer strange, you can chat, do not need your pity and sympathy, I have a job, I am a beggar, I am hungry.